Mommy, Pharm.D.: An Interview with Rita Shane

CareerPharm: How have you managed to have a meaningful professional life and successful family?

Rita Shane: Fundamentally, the ability to have it all begins with the determination that having a career is an essential component of what makes you happy. My big hairy audacious goal has always been to demonstrate the value of pharmacy services wherever there are patients. At the same time, my personal goal was to find a suitable partner to share my life with and with whom to raise a family. I realized early on that I would need to find someone who would enable me to grow and develop as a total person: a pharmacist, a wife and a mother.

CareerPharm: What does it take?

RS: Commitment, focus and determination are qualities that come to mind. One other essential ingredient is passion - passion for both the profession and for one’s personal life.

CareerPharm: What are some of the things you’ve learned?

RS: Personal and professional goals are generally not mutually exclusive and the professional commitment and rewards contribute to personal happiness. Also, priorities and goals shift on an ongoing basis and that there will be crossover of the two at times. Personal issues will arise during work time and professional commitments may require taking time away from home. I’ve learned the need to compartmentalize to get things done and at the same time recognize that a degree of flexibility is also essential.

CareerPharm: How have you benefited from working so hard at both?

RS: The lessons I’ve learned at work like how to work in a team environment and dealing with conflict, have really helped me at home and vice versa; home life and challenges associated with raising a family enabled me to understand and appreciate people at work

CareerPharm: What other observations do you have?

RS: I would say that essential prerequisites include a supportive family and a low maintenance partner who appreciates and respects how important a part of my life pharmacy is. One of the biggest challenges when the children were young was ensuring stable, safe and nurturing childcare arrangements. I learned that neither my professional or personal life nor my sanity would be intact without this. I also recognized that children are at least a 30 year longitudinal study with no control group and no crossover group and that raising them is a process of trial and error.

CareerPharm: Would you do anything different?

RS: No, I would not; the personal and professional aspects of my life have enabled me to grow, be happy, and have made me who I am

 

June 2007